


Origins Seen By Comparative Study

by YesBothWays



Series: The Body's Intelligence Could Rival The Mind's [6]
Category: Orphan Black (TV)
Genre: F/F, Family, Femslash, Happy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-27
Updated: 2015-06-27
Packaged: 2018-04-06 10:52:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,912
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4218975
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/YesBothWays/pseuds/YesBothWays
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>THEY CRY BECAUSE THEIR SEX IS SO BEAUTIFUL.  Cosima finally convinces Delphine to visit her parents house in San Francisco.  This was written in response to requests for more of Cosima's backstory and some lighthearted fluff, so it's meant to finally break the long, unnecessary trudge of sadness and pain between these two lovely human beings.  As I warned the person who requested this and helped me create the goal of writing something deeply positive, "If you vomit up a rainbow of sugar after reading this, you'll just have to forgive me."  Maybe it will even soak up some of the ocean of tears pooling in the collective queer conscience after that fake and hideous ending to their bond from S3 E10.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Origins Seen By Comparative Study

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Stitchpunk](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Stitchpunk/gifts), [yoppppppp](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=yoppppppp), [hella-geek-monkey (on tumblr)](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=hella-geek-monkey+%28on+tumblr%29).



            Delphine stopped again on the sidewalk. Cosima got a bit ahead of her before she noticed and turned around. The hesitancy in Delphine's step from before seemed to have taken over her whole body now. Cosima waited a moment for people to pass, then got herself turned around with the small duffel bag hanging at her low back, and doubled back a little.

            "You okay?" Cosima asked eagerly.

            "Yes," Delphine said.

            She seemed dodgy to Cosima, like she did not want to answer. She did not look up. Instead, she dug around in her bag, which was much larger than usual and so took a while, and lit a cigarette. When she sat the bag down on the sidewalk, Cosima saw her hand stray to her side in a fleeting gesture. Cosima thought that Delphine's gunshot wound had finally stopped hurting her entirely, even when she stretched and exercised, just a few weeks back. Cosima came back to stand beside her, a bit tucked away to the side for others to pass. She put a hand to her body.

            "Does your side hurt?" Cosima asked her in surprise.

            "No," Delphine managed to mutter distractedly through a deep drag off the cigarette. She met Cosima's eyes then. Cosima saw that she was clearly nervous.

            "Are you scared?" Cosima asked. Delphine just smoked in anxious silence for a moment. "'Cause you definitely shouldn't be."

            "Couldn't we have just met them someplace for dinner?" Delphine asked all of a sudden. Cosima cocked an eyebrow and stood slightly back. She grinned with only one side of her mouth.

            "No way," Cosima said. "They're too excited about meeting you. Everything is in season now, and Dad wants to cook his ratatouille for you, because it's just awesome. And I want to show you my room and all my weird shit from back in the day."

            Delphine kept smoking for a moment. Cosima saw that her hands were actually shaking. She got a little more serious about all this once she saw this. In the past, Delphine had acted as if her hearing were selective every time Cosima said they should come to San Francisco and visit her parents. Now, she was beginning to understand why.

            "Do they know about how we met?" Delphine asked.

            "Uh… not the tangled web of the logistics, but the feelings – they know about those," Cosima said. She held up a palm and gave half a shrug. Delphine paused for a moment. She squinted at the smoke to keep it out of her eyes.

            "So all the rage and betrayal?" Delphine asked Cosima with clear skepticism.

            "Uh, no, not that, so much. More the crying and needing lots of parental comfort, that part," Cosima said. "They sent me an epic box to cheer me up. They went shopping together, I swear, to make it and wrote notes that they tied to each specific item they put in it. Some of them were poems. I cried for like an hour over it, seriously."

            "Goodness" Delphine said.

            "Yeah. They are totally awesome," Cosima said.

            "Were they good to you about being gay?" Delphine asked. Cosima could not believe for a moment that she had to ask and couldn't understand how it had never come up before. Cosima made a severe _sssht_ sound and leaned back with it.

            "Are you serious?" Cosima said. "My dad was more concerned I would outgrow my love of the Beatles than that I would make love to any kind of person. And I bet my mom was relieved. She's been a radical feminist since she was like nineteen. She was probably like, 'More women, that's great.'" Delphine stood with her lips held tight. Her hand seemed a bit steadier when she took another drag from the cigarette. "They're gonna' love ya'," Cosima said and squeezed her arm. "That's like their thing, anyway, and you get, like, extra sugar on it for giving me so much love and having all of mine already. You know what I'm saying?"

            "I don't think I do, honestly," Delphine admitted. "But I trust your instincts." She took a deep breath. "Lead on, my love," Delphine said.

            Cosima gave her an eager kiss on the cheek before making off again. Then when people cleared out, she took her hand for a while. They made their way down the sidewalk for a good, long stretch of time. Cosima got excited when they arrived at her own neighborhood. She told stories about cafes and bookstores and basements where shows played that allowed minors, even if they couldn't drink. They always showed up stoned, Cosima said. Delpine grew distracted with listening and began to enjoy herself somewhat.

            When Cosima finally got them to a residential street, Delphine thought the houses were much more modest than she had expected, for whatever reason. They were tucked in much closer together than she would have thought. Cosima led them up to one with a strange sort of shape, hidden away almost it seemed between two larger houses.

            "This is it!" Cosima said with obvious delight. She practically skipped in her step, as she turned to show the place to Delphine. Cosima led them under a carport to one side door, instead of up to the front.

            "They don't lock this shit," Cosima said.

            She opened the door, as if confirming for herself that nothing had changed. She nodded once to Delphine. Then she went in and climbed right up the stairs. A dog barked as they came into the house, clearly more in excitement than warning. The smell of food cooking hit them immediately. Delphine followed her up and into a warm, bright kitchen.  

            A chocolate Labrador retriever stood at the top of the stairs wagging its tail ecstatically. Cosima roughed its ears immediately. From behind Cosima, Delphine saw a tall man in an old, light sweater, dark pants, and bare feet standing at the stove. The man dropped the spoon he held onto the stove with an exaggerated gesture.

            "Hey!" Cosima was saying to both man and dog.

            "'Sima Bean!" the man yelled, what seemed as loud as he could manage. That made the dog all the more excited, and it barked some more and hopped on its front feet. The man came and grapple hugged Cosima and kissed her cheek in an exaggerated set of smooches that never quite landed against her skin, as she gave a loud laugh.

            Delphine thought that he was as tall and eager, and he reminded her immediately of Cosima. There was something about how he held his body and how he moved. They did not look alike otherwise, and Delphine had not expected any strong physical similarities. As he let go of Cosima, Delphine noticed how dark of a shade of brown his eyes were although his hair seemed sandy and almost blonde, darkened probably with age. He had a slightly long face and a well-groomed beard and mustache of a nearly golden, richer shade of brown. He was handsome in his own unique way, Delphine thought.

            The dog barked a final time, then it glanced at Delphine and finally made its way over to her. She gave it a pet on the head and rubbed the tip of one ear lightly between her fingertips. It turned its head and squinted its eyes in pleasure. It seemed to like her already.

            The man straightened up and cleared his throat in mock severity, as he looked at Delphine. He spoke out of the side of his mouth in an artificial whisper, as he said, "Can I call you that in front of Delphine?"

            "Yes . Definitely," Cosima said through her grin. He came to Delphine with a smile. He held out his hand.

            "I'm Frank, but that's boring, so people call me Todd," he said. He shook her hand in a friendly manner, and his hand felt warm and soft. He let his hand linger for just an instant after the shake, and this made the gesture feel less formal.

            "So much less boring," Cosima said in response to his comment about his name in a flat tone with a shake of her head.

            "It was Hot Toddy in the 70's, but I then got older and more conservative," he said with a grin. Cosima laughed at this.

            "And started wearing shirts and shit," Cosima said.

            "Pants even," Todd said in a contrived, serious tone. "I had flare then."

            "Where's mom?" Cosima asked.

            "She can't hear," he said with a gesture of his thumb towards the wall, across the house. "You'll have to go and pry her away from her computer," he said. "She brings work home all the time now. I ask her what she wants me to make for dinner, and she answers me about spectroscopy," he said. "I don't even know what the question was she heard."

            "Okay," Cosima said with a laugh at his joke. "In the den?" He nodded.

            "Dinner is just about ready," he said. Cosima gave him an affirmative sound. She grabbed her own bag again and gave Delphine a sort of gesture with her head and led the way through the house. The dog came eagerly along with them.

            "This is Sam the Great Sugar Bear of the Western Mountains," Cosima said. She patted the dog's side as they moved along, and he sort of jumped a bit, as if he knew he was being introduced. Delphine laughed softly at this. Sam turned then and escorted Cosima, Delphine thought, with great pomp across the house.

            They entered the corridor to a small room overly filled with books and paperwork. As Sam came up to a woman seated at a computer wearing a large pair of headphones, Cosima knocked lightly on the door. Cosima's mother was turning to pet Sam, who had pushed his head into her lap and just noticing his excitement, and she turned around, possibly in part at the sound. Cosima's mother had long brown hair that was turning grey and had not been dyed to hide the fact. She took her head phones off quickly and smiled. She seemed very neat and poised to Delphine, even though she was dressed in casual, loose clothes that looked quite warm.

            "Hey, mom," Cosima said in a slightly soft voice, as if to draw her mother away from her work a bit gently. Delphine could hear the grin in her voice when she spoke. Her mother smiled in response.

            "Cos!" she said. She hesitated for just a moment, then she got up from her chair.

            "Hey," Cosima said a second time. She already had her in a hug. When she stood back, her mother turned to Delphine.

            "Delphine," she said, already in a clearly happy tone of voice, as if she already knew her and had missed her for the last while.

            She leaned in and gave Delphine kisses on each cheek just as if she were French. The gesture seemed completely natural to her and put Delphine at ease at once. The two of them stood back and sort of looked each other over. Delphine felt certain that they felt some kind of affinity and both liked each other immediately. Cosima started nudging Sam to go ahead of them, so they could all step back out into the front room and head towards the kitchen again.

            "We're going to drop these," Cosima said, meaning their bags.

            "Okay," Cosima's mother said. Delphine followed Cosima down another hallway.

            "What's your mother's name?" Delphine asked.

            "Anne," Cosima said. "You can totally call her mom if you want. Everybody did in high school. She probably wouldn't even notice." Cosima had opened a door and switched on the light inside.

            "Welcome to the geek palace of my illustrious girlhood," Cosima said, as she led them into the room. She put her bag in the center of a round, bowl-like chair in one corner.

            Delphine stood in the middle of Cosima's room and tried to take it in. The room was not very large, but it seemed full with a double bed and a wooden closet with drawers and a desk with a chair and the large, bowl chair in the corner. Then there were three bookshelves, one big, tall one and two smaller, low ones, one of which served as a bedside table, as well. The walls were covered in a meticulous collage of posters and pictures, some of them looked hand-drawn or modified by hand.   There was altogether a lot for her to see.

            "I can see why you wanted to show me this," Delphine said. Cosima could not have described it, and a picture would not have really shown anything accurate. Delphine went to look at a large poster made in gold tones that depicted the earth, sun, and moon and the angles of their axes and orbits that also had a sort of ornate, black vine pattern and a lot of formulas drawn onto it. She recognized some of them but not all.

            "I keep telling my parents I can clear this out, so they can use it for something," Cosima said as Delphine looked closely at the poster to decipher which parts were there originally and which ones Cosima added herself, "They're just like, 'We don’t' need any more stuff.' So it's pretty much the same as it was when I lived here last."

            Anne came in after them with a soft half-knock in a few moments. She had a stack of towels in her hands. She put them on Cosima's desk.

            "Here are some towels for you all," Anne said.

            She touched Cosima's arm warmly before she went out of the room again. "Sheets on your bed are fresh," she said, as she departed from the room. Cosima stood sort of beaming after her for an instant.

            "Where am I sleeping?" Delphine said.

            "What?" Cosima asked. She looked a bit confused. Delphine looked again at the towels and then at the bed.

            "They are planning for me to sleep in here with you?" Delphine said. Cosima openly stared at Delphine for a long, silent moment. She gave a sort of single laugh of complete astonishment. Delphine just stared back at her. Apparently, they were raised on two different planets.

            "Where the hell else would you sleep besides with me?" Cosima said. "Unless you, like, didn't want to or something?"

            Delphine turned a bit, then she cleared her throat in the single most awkward social gesture that Cosima had ever seen her make. She glanced up at Cosima. She must have felt how surprised Cosima really was by the depths of the culture clash they were experiencing.

            "I am not very comfortable in domestic spaces," Delphine said. She gave a sort of a shrug of resignation. Cosima laughed softly. She came and gave her a soft hug and held onto her for a long moment. She stood back again to look at her face.

            "Pretend this is a lab," Cosima said with an opening gesture of her hands and arms. Delphine smiled fully at that.

            "Where they make beautiful and scientifically minded young women, apparently," Delphine said and tugged on her shirt just a bit. She looked around the room again.

            "Exactly," Cosima said. "You will fit right in here."

            She reached out again and embraced Delphine and kissed her this time. Delphine seemed torn between the draw of their kiss and a sort of rigidity that she held in her body. Cosima held her after and sort of pulled her side to side to rock her a bit. "Just mellow out, dude," Cosima said in a tone that somehow Delphine knew already mirrored at least her father if not both of her parents.

            Delphine gave a strained laugh, as if she could let her breath out entirely. She stared somewhat unseeing at Cosima's bookshelves. And at the posters on her wall. She studied them closely in silence for a long moment. Cosima moved her around a bit more and glanced at her mouth. She leaned in to give Delphine another, softer kiss. She rocked her a bit after with their hips drawn together.

            "You should tease me and tell me I'm a nerd," Cosima said and pulled a bit at Delphine's shirt. Delphine looked over her face and smiled softly.

            "You are definitely a nerd," Delphine said.

            "Um, pillow talk, eh?" Cosima said through a grin. She pulled Delphine close and kissed her again. Delphine seemed to soften a bit finally.

            "Let's go and eat. I'll show you all the good, hidden stuff when we come back," Cosima said. Delphine nodded at her in agreement. She seemed just a bit more relaxed.

            Both of Cosima's parents smiled when they came into the room. Todd seemed both eager and consciously self-constrained to Delphine. He let them chat for a few moments and stirred the ratatouille on the stove as it finished cooking down. When there was an opening, he put down the spoon.

            "Bean, see the new swag," Todd said. Cosima focused her attention on him entirely, as he opened the fridge. He pulled out a heavy bowl stacked up with beautiful vegetables and put it on the small kitchen table.

            "Wow," Cosima said through her teeth. She picked up an eggplant with a purple and white pattern and looked at it closely before she put it aside. Todd picked up a beet and grabbed a knife. He cut it to show her the inside, marbled with a pale, soft orange and cream and almost pink shade. Cosima asked him about some different herbs and smelled them.

            "I even found a bean," Todd said. He pulled out a very shriveled bean husk from the bottom of the bowl. He opened it in his hands and two beautiful, white beans with red swirls in them came out.

            "Oh, cool," Cosima said. He showed her some stuff in jars and dried herbs and what he had from this summer in the pantry. He kept glancing towards Delphine to make sure she was included.

            "You like it?" Cosima asked her.

            "I do," Delphine said impressed. "It's like a French kitchen." Todd grinned at that and looked at Cosima with pride. He glanced around at all the food again.    

            "You should take some back with you," Todd said.

            "They eat good vegetables, I'm sure, darling," Anne said, as if to assure him. Todd seemed a little strained still. Anne smiled at Cosima.

            "Yeah, I'm sure," Todd said and seemed decidedly unconvinced.

            "We're still eating that farm share you sent us every week," Cosima told him. He nodded. Delphine got to see his serious expression. His mouth would not quite frown, but it formed a sort of disconcerted arc when he held it tight.

            "They did not have any of their soil science posted, though," Todd said in a tone of hope tinged with a deep skepticism.

            "Dad's still worried about your health," Anne said and touched his arm. Delphine got the sense from her tone that she was still worried, too, and she was just bringing the underlying implication to the surface, so that they could talk about it.

            "Yeah," Todd said. He seemed to admit it to himself, as if a kind of reminder, more than to them.

            "I am fit as a fiddle," Cosima said and smiled at the two of them.

            "Labs aren’t your face, you know?" Todd said. "It's hard to get used to the idea, even when you've seen the evidence."

            "You do look well," Anne said. Todd looked over Cosima and seemed to agree in silence. She reached and held Cosima's hand for a moment. She glanced at Delphine. "This one looks quite good, as well," Anne said.

            "We are lucky to have you both here," Todd said. He touched Cosima's shoulder and smiled warmly at Delphine.

            "I hope you have plans for a less dangerous year," Anne joked mildly.

            Delphine glanced at Cosima, as she was not certain how much her parents knew about the circumstances surrounding all of this. Cosima just smiled at them both and leaned in to kiss her mother once on the cheek. Delphine wondered what she had told them.

            "We're sticking around," Cosima promised.

            "Good," Anne said. And Todd gave a severesound in agreement.

Anne got out a bottle of California red wine, as Todd finished up by cutting a loaf of bakery bread. Delphine knew how good the bread was from the sound it made as he cut it and how bits of crust flaked off. He then pulled out some wrapped cheeses from the fridge.

            "You want to eat up top?" Todd asked.

            "Sure," Cosima said in clear eagerness.

            Anne got out a stack of what looked like ceramic cups without handles. Todd put the cut bread into a cloth-lined basket, and Anne put the cups in with these. He then stacked the cheeses on a wooden block with a cheese knife. They all filled their bowls then with his ratatouille. Anne took his bowl for him without asking and led the way. They all filed up a ladder and out onto a nearly flat portion of the roof with some folding, wooden chairs on it. They had a telescope bolted to a more angled section of the rooftop. The few stars that showed north and west were beautiful, but there was too much light pollution from the other directions to reveal many.

            The sun was just beginning to touch the horizon line, and the belt of Hercules was showing, the shadow of the earth against the sky. Todd got the cheeses laid out on the board. Delphine took her first bite of his dish.

            "This tastes amazing," Delphine said.

            "All picked today," Todd said. "Those are Josie's tomatoes."

            They focused on their food for a while. They seemed to all be simply enjoying one another's company. Delphine felt oddly at home.

            "How's Josie?" Cosima asked.

            Delphine listened intently, as Cosima parents gave reports of several of their friends. They would give Delphine a brief summary of whom they were discussing at times. Many of them were people Cosima had known since childhood.

"How are the Bookies?" Cosima asked. Anne made a distressed sound. Todd shook his head. Cosima explained that her parents and their best friends had a book club for nearly two decades.

            "We're having a dry run," Todd said.

            "We did some of those fantasy novels that younger people are reading now. They were just terrible," Anne said.

            "We liked that one series we found," Todd said.

            "Yeah," Anne said. "Kristin Cashore." Cosima shrugged to say that she didn't know it. She glanced at Delphine who also gave an unknowing look.

            "We should have read _The Hunger Games_ ," Todd said. He had obviously repeated himself on this many times. Anne gave a sort of laugh to show she actually enjoyed hearing it again anyways.

            "We went back to philosophy for summer," Anne said.

            "You'll have to have a vintage fantasy run in winter," Cosima said.

            "Right?" Anne said. Todd shrugged.

            "We all re-read that stuff anyway. I say we do myths and see if we can find some new translations," Todd said.

            "This from the man who relegated my copy of 'the Heany-wulf' to a separate shelf from the rest," Anne said.

            "That's a personal resentment, not an ideological commitment," Todd said.

            "We should just actually do our research next time and not read whatever is front-listed," Anne said.

            "Yeah," Todd said. "It ended up being a study in the waning of feminist discourse in popular literature. That wasn't exactly the plan. We gather as Bookies to gain hope for the world." He said the last sentence as if it were a pact they repeated often.

            "How's the new community garden?" Cosima asked.

            "It's great," Todd said. His tone seemed like a concession. Anne nodded in agreement.

            "They got that bodega up on Willow Street," Anne said.

            "We still don't shop there," Todd said with a shrug. "Not that it changes anything."

            "I miss walking down so often," Anne said. "But we learned so much by trying to reduce our trips out."

            "You should see my drawings of the irrigation system that's out there. It's better than going out there to see. It's drip, and the whole garden has ground cover now, so you can't see how it works. You can see the shape of the raised beds and trenches. The place looks like this golden, straw-covered rabbit maze," Todd said.

            "We might get some red bricks and lay down paths," Anne said.

            "Yeah," Todd said. "They're taking down the old fire house and donating a lot of the bricks that don't get demolished to different projects."

            "That'd be cool," Cosima said.

            "It's totally unnecessary," Anne said. "We'll do it if we get the materials for free."

            "It'd just be the cement and the labor," Todd said. "Jill can level it down, and Frank and I will help pack down the earth underneath and the brick."

            "It would be beautiful," Anne said.

            "Sounds great," Cosima said.

            "We were all so upset," Anne said. "But it worked out well in the end."

            "We saw Mattie and Sally," Todd said. From his tone, it sounded to Delphine like these were Cosima's friends and not their own.

            "Oh, yeah?" Cosima asked.

            "Yeah, they came to visit Rog," Anne said. "They're good."

"Are you in touch with the old gang?" Todd asked Cosima.

            "Mm-hm, online mostly. I talked to Lila a couple weeks ago. She's still with Terrence. Their jobs seems good. They just decided they're not going to have kids, and they're planning to buy a sail boat in the next couple of years and eventually go around the world on it. Tasha seems good. She's engaged now to Missy, the girlfriend she has from college. Lloyd is doing drag shows. I'm kind of worried he's doing drugs on the party scene, but he said he was being safe when I talked to him last. Lynn is good. She's still working all the time and coaching. I think everyone seems to be pretty good, honestly," Cosima said.

            Anne and Todd nodded at all this and looked pleased. Delphine noticed how much they seemed to care about all of Cosima's friends. She found it quite remarkable.

"And how are some of your people now? How's Sarah and Felix?" Todd asked.

            He seemed a bit mild in his questioning. Delphine got a sense that they were curious, but that they did not know very much about them all. Anne looked at him for a moment, then she looked at Cosima.

            "They're good," Cosima said. "My friend Allison is still sober." Todd and Anne gave murmurs of delight at this. "And Sarah's out visiting her daughter. They're with her dad."

            "Oh, good," Todd said. They were quiet for a moment. Anne looked at Todd again as if contemplating something. She turned to Cosima and smiled a slightly deviant smile.  

            "Dad was worried that you thought we were racist when you stopped sending us pictures of your friends," Anne said.

            "Anne," Todd said in mild admonishment. Anne and Cosima both laughed at Anne's comment. Todd seemed only very slightly incredulous.

            "You don't have to send us anything you don't want," Todd said. "I was not that suspicious, it was just a worried thought. I only said it once. Your mom just thought it was funny." Cosima laughed and gave a sort of shrug.

            "You thought it more than once," Anne teased him. He would not say whether this were true. He kept a stoic expression.

            "It's just been complicated the past year or two," Cosima said.

            "Of course, it has," Anne said. Todd nodded severely. Delphine thought that she meant mainly because Cosima had been ill and trying to make decisions about school and work.

When they had been out a little while longer and hit another pause in their conversation, Todd suggested they go down again where there was more light. They came down, and they all stood around in the kitchen while Todd washed their bowls and Anne made them a pot of tea.

            As she put together a tray, she brought out an old tin that Cosima pointed it out to Delphine as one of her favorite things from childhood. They got it for Christmas Anne explained and just kept it afterwards, because Cosima loved it so much. It had a landscape with children skating on a frozen pond and people walking around it with their dogs. It looked a bit French but probably actually Danish to Delphine. Cosima made up stories, Anne said, for each person in the picture, and Todd specified that person meant dogs, as well.

            They went into the front room with their dessert. Anne hauled in a tray with the tea and opened the ribbon on a box of expensive chocolate truffles. She opened up the tin, which was filled with what looked like homemade cookies.

            "What are you actually doing right now, Dad?" Cosima said, as she started on a first cookie. Anne gave a slight, cynical laugh, as she poured tea.

            "Oh, just data systems work," Todd said with an exaggerated shrug. He seemed light about it but also a bit bored.

            "It's mostly a bunch of capitalist bullshit," Anne said.

            "Yeah," he said flatly. "I do financial data all the time now. Butch just acted like it was a rare thing to get me going with it. Sometimes it's both. Either way, though, I have the only fun job in the place setting things up and getting them going, and then I get to leave the rest of those sad bastards behind. Some of the stuff is great – the odd job still focuses on research data only."

            "I'm sure your systems are very elegant," Cosima said in support.

            "Of course," Anne said in concession to this and like support of Todd. "They just aren't for science anymore."

            "They're so pretty when you install them," Todd said. He and Anne looked hard at each other. "And then they do work for the man," he said as if narrating a children's story, as he enunciated slowly. The two of them both laughed.

            "I'm not going to do it forever," Todd said. "I still want to get into soil science somehow. What do your folks do?" Todd asked Delphine quite suddenly.

            "My mother is married to a politician," Delphine said. Cosima turned to her at this. She didn't know before that moment.

            "Is he nice?" Todd said. "You all close?" Delphine did not know what to say for a moment. Cosima cleared her throat.

            "Not a fun topic," Cosima said.

            "Ah," Todd said. He seemed without any social awkwardness, and he looked like he was willing to just change the subject.

            "We're not close," Delphine said. "And I only have the one parent left."

            "What about the parent you lost?" Anne said. "When did that happen?" Delphine noticed that she didn't assume her other parent was male. That had never happened to her before.

            "In my early twenties," Delphine said. "My father… he was a scientist, a phyto-technologist." Both of Cosima's parents gave sound of intrigue at this. "He wrote a book that's still used in French universities."

            "Is there an English translation?" Todd asked and seemed deeply intrigued.

            "I don't know," Delphine admitted. He took out his phone and asked what it was called. He looked it up, while they continued talking.

            "My family sort of broke apart after my younger sister passed away. We were all quite distant, and then my father passed, as well," Delphine said.

            Delphine saw Anne make a severe, sad face. Neither of them made a big deal out of this, though. She seemed a little surprised herself to be speaking of all this so freely with them.

            "Yeah, there was one," Todd said, meaning the English translation of Delphine's father's book. He kept on searching for a long while in silence. Eventually, he handed the phone to Cosima. "Do your address," he began to say, then he seemed to catch himself for a moment. He looked up at Delphine. "Do you mind if we get it?" he asked.

            "No," Delphine said. "The more people who read it, the better, I think. It keeps his work alive in a way."

            Todd nodded in a stoic affirmation of this sentiment. He clearly shared it, and that's why he was looking. When Cosima handed his phone back, he searched for a whole longer, then he put the phone aside. "I got a copy sent to you all and one sent here. There are a few more out there, it looks like."

            "Thanks," Cosima said in a genuine tone.

            Sam came over to Todd, and Todd roughed Sam's ears, as he gave Cosima a sort of shrug. Sam got excited by his attention and went and brought him a rope toy. Todd pulled at it mildly for a while. He kept it up until Sam thought he had "won" it and lay down to chew it with relish and pride.

            After she finished a good handful of cookies, Cosima finally made herself a cup of tea and then sat on the floor. Sam abandoned his rope toy and got up immediately and came to lay down again with his front paws and his head in her lap. Delphine could tell that Cosima knew he would do this, and he wagged his tail even before she sat down, as if it were a pending invitation. Some kind of ritual, maybe, or else just Sam's tendencies in general.  

            Cosima rubbed his fur as they kept talking. She looked close at his face and rubbed his muzzle. Delphine knew that she was studying the white hairs across his muzzle to see if there were more than when she had last visited. The sight gave her pause for a moment.

            "How's work for you two?" Todd asked.

            "Good," Cosima said.

            "Very well," Delphine answered around the same time.

            "Happy to be back in the lab?" Anne asked Delphine.

            "More than I could ever express," Delphine said. "My mother always wanted me to go into politics, and for a while there, I felt like I had."

            "World has a way of pulling you into roles," Todd said.

            "Isn't that the truth," Cosima said.

            Delphine felt slightly uncertain and became more guarded, as she did not know what Cosima's parents knew or not about the nature of their work. She knew that they did not know everything, and she didn't want to confuse them.

            They got into a nice, long and simple conversation about science then. Delphine felt much more comfortable with all this. She didn't have to think about how she wanted to participate. The conversation took on a life of its own, and she had a clear role. She actually came to sit beside Cosima and pet Sam, who raised his head and wagged his tail in delight. Cosima wanted to lean over and kiss her, Delphine could see, and gave her a quick kiss on the shoulder instead. She did not even blush at this. They had been making trouble in the lab, because Delphine had pressed the Dyad to release certain research to the public when she had a great deal of leverage. They were suspicious of them now.

            "It's always a conflict," Delphine said, "Because you get more investment and risk in the private labs. They do the really brave research, but then they bury it and control it and want to channel it towards profit only and not reveal what's being discovered. Whereas the public work tends to get underfunded and focus too much on worries over liabilities and manage only publically perceived risks. There is not the same boldness there."

            "Brave or safe in your worldview," Cosima said. "And the people or the institutions in mine." She gave Delphine a meaningful look a deep shrug. Delphine sighed in response. They weren't fighting anymore, but there were still tensions, differences they had to manage between them.  

            "You were always very brave," Anne said. Delphine realized she was speaking directly to her after a second passed. She felt some kind of solidarity from Anne that was much more than she expected somehow.

            Delphine felt that this moment characterized Anne deeply. She spoke with a sort of confidence and authority that made Delphine question her own sense of self-scrutiny and doubt. Anne was looking at Cosima, and Delphine glanced over to see Cosima smiling softly at Anne.

            Delphine perceived something of what was communicated between them in the silence. She had the sense that Cosima had talked to Anne about her, even right at the beginning, when Cosima did not know who Delphine was or how to read her. She felt sure that Anne had felt that Delphine was trustworthy. Cosima must have listened to her in some way. Maybe Anne had understood more of Delphine's hesitancy and sense of conflict in their relationship than Cosima, she thought. And Cosima took to her on faith in Anne's judgment, as much as from Delphine.

            After a while, Cosima's parents finally could not hide that they were growing tired. They decided to say goodnight. They all made plans to go walk along the shore and visit the art museum after breakfast in the morning. Everyone seemed readily decided on where they should eat, some favorite place. Delphine said goodnight to each of them. Todd gave her a soft and quick hug. She kissed Anne on each cheek.

            Cosima took Delphine off then to explore her room. The hallway felt long to Delphine, as if they moved far away from her parents. They'd gone into another part of the house that Delphine had not seen to their own room.

            "So what do you think of them?" Cosima asked Delphine when they got to her room again.

            "They are not like parents. They are like friends," Delphine said.

            "Holy shit, Delphine," Cosima said with quite obvious distress. Delphine didn't say anything for a moment.

            "Your father is very joyful," Delphine said. Cosima grinned at this and furrowed her brows for an instant in thought, as she went and sat on her bed. "Come here!" Cosima said to her suddenly.

            Delphine came and sat on the bed. Cosima dug around under the bed and retrieved photo albums. She showed a lot of pictures from her childhood all the way up to high school to Delphine. They grew lost in the project for a long while. Delphine liked the high school pictures of Cosima especially. There were also four pages of pink detention and red expulsion slips in the album.

            "Why are these here?" Delphine asked.

            "My parents kept them, because they think they're funny. _Also_ I think, because they were proud."

            Delphine read the reasons written on the slips. She read her two favorites out loud, "Leading a group of students in painting on the ceiling and disrespecting teachers when discovered. Ignoring instructions during labs."

            "That one is my favorite," Cosima said and pointed to one.

            "Making out in the broom closet," Delphine read. Cosima laughed. She rubbed at her eyes.

            "Mr. Peterson, who wrote us up, laughed the whole time," Cosima said.

            "You have not changed very much, I guess," Delphine said.

            "No, not all that much," Cosima said.

            "Are you wearing a dress and blue jeans together?" Delphine asked her at another page of photographs.

            "Oh, yeah," Cosima said. "I was totally into that for a while. And I also had… you can't really see it here…" she got up from the bed and dug in a top drawer of her dresser, "I had fishnets that I cut for my arms. Not plain black ones, like green and purple and flowers and stuff… here we go!" She pulled out a pile. Delpine rubbed the fabric between her fingers and looked over them. She grinned at Cosima. Cosima put one on for just a moment with ease, then pulled them off.

            "What else can I show you?" Cosima asked, as her eyes scanned over the room. She dug in the closet and got out a backpack that was covered in patches. She had sewn them all on herself. The bag was nearly in tatters. She had it all four years of high school she said. She thought and glanced around again for a moment.

            "Wait…" Cosima said. She started looking for something. "I bet it's still here." She dug through some drawers. She got down to the bottom of one and said, "Ah-hah!" She stood up with a purple, inexpensive vibrator.

            "You left that here?" Delphine asked.

            "I took the expensive stuff with me," Cosima said with a shrug. Delphine just stared at her and swallowed. "This was the very first sex toy I ever bought."

            "When?" Delphine asked. Her voice sounded a bit stiff. She sat very straight and still.  

            "When I turned sixteen, my mom gave me a $250 gift card to Good Vibes and told me to take my best friend, Amy, with me," Cosima said. "I bought this and one almost like it for her and like five books that we shared with basically everyone we were friends with over the year. We were one highly sex educated posse of teens."

            Delphine moved over onto her elbow, propped up on her arm. She sighed a bit and felt the first wave of becoming tired. Cosima noticed it.

            "Let me find us some pj's," Cosima said. They hadn't packed anything for bed, as Cosima said they could wear some of her old stuff when they got there. She had also joked that they could sleep naked, but Delphine had not laughed in response to her joke at the time. Apparently, she didn't get what visiting one's hippy parents meant and why the idea was funny.

            Cosima went back to her dresser and opened the top drawer. She pulled out a purple, oversized Beatles shirt. The edges of the sleeves were splitting with age, and the fabric looked soft and thin. Cosima held it up between her two palms.

            "This is, like, totally sacred," Cosima said. "I _only_ let my first, real girlfriend wear this. And _no one_ else."

            "I am terribly honored," Delphine said. Cosima gave her a joking and severe nod. Delphine pulled her shirt off and put it on the back of a chair. She took off her bra.

            "Just, so you now, this is, like, wedding ring caliber extreme," Cosima said, as she handed her the shirt.

            She let herself stand there to glance over Delphine's body for a moment, as she pulled the shirt on. Cosima got another shirt out and started to pull of her clothes. Delphine took off her pants, then she pulled the covers down and climbed into the bed.

            "Here, check this out," Cosima said. She clicked off the lights and came to get in the bed next to Delphine. Her ceiling and the upper part of her walls were covered in stars that glowed in the dark. Delphine gave a soft laugh in the dim room.

            "This was like… the coolest shit in the world when I was thirteen," Cosima said.

            "I love all your posters, as well," Delphine said.

            "Oh, yeah," Cosima said. "A total masterpiece, I thought it was. I knew it would never to be entirely perfect, like a freakin' Michelangelo sculpture, so meticulous and precise. I was always working on it." Delphine laughed. Cosima clicked the lamp on beside the bed. Delphine's eyes traced the stars, now visible, among the pattern of posters.

            "What's the empty space?" Delphine asked. She meant a blank space in the posters on the wall.

            "Gwen Stefani's throne," Cosima said and trailed the words out for emphasis. "I took that one to college with me."

            "It never made it back?" Delphine asked.

            "Oh, I still have it. Packed away in my closet," Cosima said. "Maybe I should bring it back finally." She lay quiet for a moment. "I keep thinking it will get retro and cool in like another couple of years, and I'll get it out again. What did you have on your walls?" Cosima asked.

            "Nothing of mine," Delphine said. She seemed reticent for a moment. "But in the science room at my boarding school, there was a line of pictures that ran around the entire room high on the wall. They were all of great scientists. There was one picture of Marie Curie. I felt like that was mine, you know? Like it had been put there for me," Delphine said.

            "Oh my God," Cosima said. "I had this picture of Marie Curie in a book I read… wait…" Cosima leaned over the side of the bed to look at the low bookshelf right beside her bed. She came back up with one of them, a thick book of famous scientists. She flipped through for a minute and found the picture of Marie Curie. She held it there for Delphine. "I used to imagine us making out."

            "You did not," Delphine said in absolute incredulity.

            "I totally did," Cosima said, slightly slow, and in a severe tone.

            "In what context?" Delphine asked her in astonishment.

            "I don't know, like a field or something. It wasn't a highly evolved fantasy, just like, you know, sex and science. Why is this hard for _you_ to imagine?" Cosima said.

            "I could never kiss Marie Curie," Delphine said in a severe tone, as she shook her head. Cosima laughed at her at this. Delphine shook her head more. "It would be like kissing the Virgin Mary."

            "How's that not hot?" Cosima said. "She's probably a sweetheart to have a son that cool and also a total babe."

            Delphine hit her on the arm softly. She laughed, but she also just shook her head from side to side with an exaggerated motion that implied the deepest rejection and vague horror at Cosima's comment. She ran her hand through her hair a moment.

            "Clearly, you were not actually raised Catholic," Delphine said.

            "No way. My mom is a total flower child still. She used to tell me origin stories about my birth, about the science of it all, like how I came into this world. Since I knew I wasn't theirs, and they knew I had been in vitro. She used to tell me how the entire cosmos reflected itself in one single strand of my DNA, and that all the beauty and order created through the animating force in the universe already defined my being from the moment I arrived in this life," Cosima said.

            "Oh, my God," Delphine said, clearly amazed and almost overwhelmed.

            "Yeah," Cosima said with gravity. "She's rad as shit." Cosima leaned over again and dug around under the edge of the bed. She came up with a tiny remote control.

            "Check out this fancy shit," Cosima said. She pushed some buttons and started up a multi-disc CD player. She put the tip of her tongue to her lip, as she set the volume and flicked through the songs until she found one she liked. She let a few play in part, then she finally landed on a cover of a the Beatles song "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da." Cosima got super excited about it.

            "Who is this?" Delphine asked.

            "Aw, come on!" Cosima said. "It's Gwen Stefani!"

            "Oh, of course. Your queen," Delphine said.

            "'S right!" Cosima said. She sort of danced in place for a moment. Then she sat up. "I'm 'a show you my _teen_ dance moves!" Cosima said eagerly.

            Cosima clambered out of the bed and proceeded to make Delphine laugh so hard she that she was actually crying. "I thought this was really cool, like David Bowie in Labyrinth," Cosima said at one point, as she showed Delphine another dance move she had made up for herself.  

            "Aren't you waking up your parents?" Delphine finally managed to ask.

            "Nope! They can't hear shit on the other side of the house. They planned it that way, so I could be a teen spaz late at night and not bother them in their noble, adult respite," Cosima said. "Actually it was so they could do work here and not bother each other, and I think they were kind of worried that they were still going to have sex a lot even after they had me. But that's totally not the main point. Come on! Come on!" She practically pulled Delphine towards the edge of the bed in her eagerness to get her to join her.

            "I do not dance well," Delphine said. Cosima made an ambiguous, severe sound. She dragged Delphine up to stand near her.

            "I'll teach you how to look _so cool_ ," Cosima said in a sort of half mockery.

            Delphine was pulled into Cosima's wildness for a while. She forgot her self-consciousness, since it was all terribly funny anyway. Sam must have heard them moving around, because he nudged the door open. He stood wagging his tail and staring at them, already panting in vicarious excitement.

            "Sam!" Cosima said as if her best friend had just arrived quite unexpected. She patted the bed hard once, and Sam leaped onto it. He stood wagging his tail and leaning over the edge towards Cosima in clear excitement. She pushed the door closed to keep the sound inside the room a bit. She pulled the cushion off her desk chair and sort of pummeled him with it. He clearly expected this, and he rolled around on the bed and bit at the pillow in a set of rolling and subdued aggressive maneuvers. Cosima wound up basically rolling around with him on the bed for a nice, long while, as Delphine leaned back against the closet doors and watched them.

            When they were both lying there winded, Delphine came and sat beside Cosima. Cosima leaned up to kiss Delphine, and Sam sniffed at their faces. Cosima gave a muffled groan at him. She turned towards him to give him kisses on the cheek afterwards. The music ended, and Sam, as if in response, lay down on the bed with his tail still wagging.

            "You going to sleep in here?" Cosima asked Sam. He turned his head just slightly at her questioning tone. Cosima turned to Delphine.

            "Sam used to be my trusty bedfellow," Cosima told Delphine. "He's great at spooning. But you got to keep him on the outside. If he gets between you and the wall, he'll give you a slow push to the far edge of the bed like a greedy prince." Sam pawed at Cosima, as he knew she was talking about him. Cosima blocked his paw easily and rubbed the fur at his neck. "He's a great little brother," Cosima said. She got him to grin and kick, as she scratched a particular spot on his neck. "Aren't you Sam?" Cosima said as she let go. And he gave a sort of snort of agreement. He rolled over onto his belly. Cosima rubbed his belly for a while. She made a deep sigh.

            "You're keeping me up with your wildness," Cosima said to Delphine.

            "I'm a bad influence," Delphine said with a laugh.

            "Obvs," Cosima said.

            She leaned over again to kiss Delphine. Then she got up and got out her bag with her toothbrush and toiletries in it. Delphine followed suit. She led them to the bathroom, and Sam followed them down the hallway. He stood at the door for a moment, then he made his way off. Cosima was brushing her teeth. She finished and dried her mouth on a towel.

            "He's heading off to mom and dad's room," Cosima said. "He never liked to share when I had someone with me."

            "Jealous?" Delphine said.

            "I liked to think of it more as an offer of privacy," Cosima said.

            "Sure. A bit of canine solidarity," Delphine said.

            "Exactly," Cosima said.

            When they got back, Cosima pulled down the bedcovers and the top sheet. The two of them climbed in. Cosima turned towards Delphine and smiled at her once. Cosima turned over onto her side, and then leaned up on one arm. She seemed a little hesitant, but she clearly intended to put the moves on Delphine. She tried to read Delphine's body first.

            Delphine spent four months with the muscles in her abdomen injured and engaged in a slow, long process of healing. As a result, she learned all kinds of things about herself, about her body and ways to have sex. She found out how to simply kiss all day, how to watch, how to make love without needing to end with an orgasm, and how to work around and through all kinds of limitations in her own body as it made its way through a slow process of recovery.

            Delphine remained relaxed, as Cosima thought and then kissed her and ran her hands up under the shirt to touch her skin. The feel of Cosima's hands as they slid over her made her eyes close. She looked up at Cosima's face and ran her hands over her hair, when Cosima leaned back up again. She did not feel any strain or tension at the change when Cosima looked over the bed again and grew distracted. She simply waited now for her to say something more.

"I totally lost my virginity in this bed," Cosima said.

            "Wow," Delphine said. "Who with? How did you decide that you had?" Delphine added with a quick furrowing of her brows. Cosima grinned at that.

            "With Tasha," Cosima said. She stretched the name out as if to emphasize how big of a deal she was. "She was the one who got to wear this very shirt," Cosima said. She nodded in exaggerated severity and smiled. She seemed to think back over it for a moment. "We were basically best friends for a couple years before we got together. We were together here this one night, and we just hit a point where I was like, 'All right, this, right here, this is it. This is the most possible sex a person can have and the most possible feelings a person can have during it. Whatever is possible to do with sex, I've done it as of right now.'" Delphine laughed in enjoyment of the story.

            "That's kind of amazing," Delphine said.

            "I had a thousand feelings about that girl," Cosima said. "We cried for so many weeks when we broke up, half the time on the phone to each other." She laughed at them in her memory. "My parents got so stressed out about it finally, they were like, 'Dude, you have got to chill out about this, and we're going to send you to space camp to distract you for a little while.'" Delphine laughed softly.

            "Did it work?" Delphine asked.

            "Totally," Cosima said as if it were obvious that it would.

            "I cannot imagine making love to someone in my own bed when I was young like that," Delphine said.

            "Yeah… I got super lucky," Cosima said. "Where were you? How did you decide?" She smiled at her slight jest at imposing a queer element in Delphine's sex life all those years ago.

            "Oh, I don't even know. I can't remember it exactly. It must have been in someone's dorm at university. I'm sure I was quite drunk at the time," Delphine said.

            "Ah, man," Cosima said. "That sucks."

            "That was good enough for me back then, honestly," Delphine said. "I thought that was pretty liberated. It was sex, after all, you know?"

            "It's all relative, I guess," Cosima said.

            Cosima looked down at Delphine's body, then she lifted up the shirt Delphine was wearing and bent down to kiss her breasts. Delphine closed her eyes, as soon as Cosima lifted up her shirt. She lay with her hand rested on the back of Cosima's head and went quiet. When Cosima leaned back up, Delphine blinked slowly and shifted to look at her face more closely. Delphine placed her hand to Cosima's cheek and ran her thumb over her lips. Delphine brought her own parted lips back together.

            Cosima came in and placed her lips upon Delphine's and gently parted them to open Delphine's mouth. She licked and felt Delphine's tongue move to meet her own. Delphine gave the softest sort of moan and shifted her hips subtly on the bed. Cosima read the cues and grew more serious. She moved over her a bit more and kissed Delphine harder.

            Delphine felt some kind of restraint in Cosima, even as they kissed. Their kisses became deep and slow. Usually, these were the kind of kisses that meant they would wind up naked in short order. Cosima drew back, and she moved softly. She looked over Delphine again, and Delphine felt a tenderness in her gaze that made her own chest feel fill up with feeling.

            "Are you gonna' be freaked out at all if we make love here?" Cosima asked her softly. She kissed Delphine's body and put the shirt down. "I could probably live with missing one day."

            Delphine laughed softly at the joke, they had come to a point where they had sex every night and sometimes all day when they had the day to themselves. They figured it would slow down a bit eventually, but it hadn't yet. Cosima had asked casually, as she offered Delphine a chance to put a boundary on what happened next. Delphine just shook her head softly and gave Cosima a faint smile with her eyes. They kissed more and drew each other's bodies in close together.

            As they lay close to one another in stillness for a moment, Delphine reached to touch Cosima's face. She thought over the intimacy she felt with Cosima in this place. She felt a new form of nearness to her, yet another moment of standing at the brink of something between them as they prepared to make love here in her bed.

            "Thank you for bringing me to this place," Delphine said to her simply. Cosima grinned.

            "Of course," Cosima said. Delphine touched her lips lightly. She traced the line of her shoulder. She looked back into Cosima's eyes for a moment. She could still remember when it felt difficult to hold Cosima's gaze in this way.

            "Je t'aime," Delphine said. She saw Cosima smile at this and blink slowly. She looked over Delphine's face for a moment.

            "And I love you," Cosima said then. She leaned over after a moment and started them kissing again. This time she moved over her with a clear intent in how she touched Delphine's body as she did.

            Delphine drew Cosima overtop of her. They kissed deeply for a long while, as Delphine embraced Cosima's body and held her close. Delphine wanted to touch Cosima's skin, and she drew up Cosima's shirt. Cosima came up a bit to pull it off, then she slipped Delphine's shirt up and pulled it off, as she leaned forward a bit.

            The movement was one Delphine not make for months, as it placed too much force on her upper abs. Cosima remembered this and ran her hand over Delphine's body just beneath her ribs and felt the scar as it passed under her palm. She looked down over Delphine's body and at her breasts.

            Cosima shifted herself a bit and put her hand over one of Delphine's breasts, as she leaned slowly down to kiss the other. She felt Delphine draw in a deep breath, then she felt her let it out slowly. Her breath shuddered almost imperceptibly on the way out with the pleasure of Cosima's touch on her body. Cosima looked over her again, then she looked up at Delphine's face. She seemed very serious, and she gave a slight shake of her head. She gripped Delphine's hand softly in her own.

            "I am gonna' make this crazy slow," Cosima said.  

            "Oh, my God," Delphine said without even planning to speak.

            Consent was communicated between them without words, as they looked at each other a moment. Then Cosima came up again to kiss her as she pressed into her again and ran her hands across Delphine's body. Delphine grasped her shoulders, as if to prepare herself.

            Somehow, over the past months, their bodies seemed to have learned one another anew. They moved together with an intimacy beyond thought or speech. They could read one another, match to one another, move together into extremes of passion. Now, as they kept the energy between them steady and calm, Delphine felt herself allowing Cosima to lead at the slightest provocations.            

            Cosima made good on her word even from the beginning. The way she kissed and held Delphine, the way that she touched her body were all meant to draw out the experience. Delphine grew completely lost in this for a long while. She did not have another clear thought, she merely succumbed to the feel of Cosima's touch, her lips, her hands, her body, as they moved across her own body.

            After a long while, as Cosima kissed the insides of Delphine's thighs and ran her hands over the length of them, she pressed her mouth into Delphine. She made it soft, searching, a tender gesture. Delphine felt a warmth of feeling spread through her own chest, as she felt Cosima's lips on her. This went on for so long, Delphine felt dizzied. She might have eased back and found her way towards a climax.

            Cosima brought her mouth away. Delphine shook her head a bit, as if waking from a trance. She looked down at Cosima in order to follow her lead. Cosima came up overtop of her again, and Delphine drew her up and into a kiss and an embrace once more. As she settled over her, Cosima pressed her thigh up into Delphine. She moaned with the feel of it, and she re-angled her own body, so she could bring her leg up to press into Cosima, as well.

            They moved together gently, as they kissed. They pressed their mouths together harder than they pressed their legs into one another. There was a sort of tenderness to all this that made Delphine recall what it felt like to weep after making love, a sweet vulnerability that came over her and would seem to sting and then ache, an edge to it almost like pain. When they were growing a bit more rough, unable to keep from wanting more, Delphine saw Cosima gather herself for a moment.

            Cosima moved away from Delphine in order to turn her onto her side and move in behind her. She lay behind Delphine now. She ran her nails down along her spine, which made Delphine moan. Delphine reached behind her, as Cosima kissed her neck. She kissed down along her spine and ran her hand over her hip.

            Cosima pressed her hand into Delphine's low stomach, between the bones of her hips. Delphine gave a slight sound at this, and she pressed back into Cosima. Cosima pressed her arm against the mattress and slid it under Delphine's side. Delphine moved a bit to allow it, as Cosima wrapped her arm around her waist for a moment. Then she brought her hand in between Delphine's thighs. She brought the other hand between the from the back, as well.

            Cosima pressed into Delphine almost gently from the front, as she found a way to press into her by the slightest degrees. Delphine felt for a moment like she was actually young and being made love to by someone tender for the first time. She turned herself back a bit, and she longed for a moment for Cosima's kiss. Cosima could feel this, and she kissed her shoulder. She let her mouth linger against her skin, and Delphine focused entirely on the heat and softness of this.

            Delphine lost all her capacity for thought after a while. Cosima moved her own hips to press into Delphine's to help move her against her hands. When Delphine began to moan with the feel of her hands on and inside of her, Cosima kept on steadily for just a while. Cosima leaned up a bit to look down over Delphine, and Delphine knew that Cosima would stop soon and find some other way to touch her to keep this from ending.

            Delphine moaned, involuntarily, at the thought, and her voice sounded delicate, almost fragile. Cosima looked up over her at this, and Delphine could almost feel how heavy Cosima's body became with desire and pleasure at the sound that she made. They both turned, almost at once, as Cosima let go of Delphine. They nearly dragged one another into another embrace and a passionate kiss.

            Delphine pushed her hand down in between Cosima's legs. Cosima reacted so strongly at first, she nearly pulled back away from Delphine, as her back arched. She held herself almost rigid, and Delphine knew that she would come almost at once. She put her other arm around Cosima's waist and held her hard. She kissed her, as she moved her hand between her legs in almost terse circles.

            Their mouths were pressed to one another's as Cosima came, and Delphine felt herself moan in response to it. Cosima's body did not relax afterwards. She pressed into Delphine once more, and Delphine brought her hand out from between them. Cosima took her wrist and brought her arms up and pressed her arms into the bed at her sides for a moment.  

            Delphine tried to relent, but she almost could not. Cosima seemed to feel this in her body, and she moved down over her quickly and put her mouth to her body again. Delphine felt a sense of relief when she did, and she lay back into the pillow. She held Cosima's shoulders, held her head gently in her hands. She moved with her and felt entirely overcome by the experience.

            Cosima reached up to run her nails down Delphine's sides. Delphine felt her back arch, on instinct, as she moaned. Cosima took her mouth away from her body and came up to reach behind her back, held up off the mattress for a moment, and scratch across her shoulder blades. Delphine groaned at this and closed her eyes. She felt her mind almost seem to blackout for an instant.

            Cosima had come up over her again when she opened her eyes and came back to the moment fully. Delphine wrapped her arms around her. She brought one around then and pressed it down between them and placed her hand on Cosima again. Cosima moaned and drew herself up for just a moment. She shifted over then just slightly and reached to touch Delphine, as well. They kissed over and over, as their touch on one another's bodies began to match and align, as if by instinct.

            Cosima shifted over onto her side after a time. She pressed in close, as Delphine also turned and moved into her. They kissed passionately, as they moved their bodies with one another's. They kept their movements slow, almost terribly slow, Delphine felt. Yet somehow, there was nothing except pleasure from the slow, aching feel of all of this. Cosima moved in a little to kiss Delphine's neck and throat and shoulder. She looked at her breasts for a moment.

            Delphine brought her hand to Cosima's breast, before Cosima could reach to touch hers. Cosima closed her eyes at once, and Delphine felt her body grow heavy. She would build to a climax again soon, Delphine could feel. Cosima's free hand in between them grasped Delphine's wrist, as if to steady herself. Delphine let go of Cosima's breast for just a moment to press her own hand to her other breast and come back again.

            Delphine kissed Cosima deeply, as cries began to sound in Cosima's throat. She pressed her on towards her own climax. Delphine broke their kiss, as Cosima began to cry out freely. She kept it up, until she felt from the trembling of Cosima's body that she could not take anymore. Delphine let her go and dragged Cosima into her with one arm. They kissed, as if desperate to do so.

            Cosima's free hand moved to almost urgently bring Delphine's hand to rest on her hip. And then she pressed the other to Delphine's own chest. She took one of Delphine's breasts in her hand and leaned down to kiss the other. When she came up to kiss her lips again, Delphine held her own breast now in response. She knew that she would build up into a climax. She felt from how slowly the threads of pleasure seemed to gather and form into a full experience inside of her body just how intense her release would be when it came over her.

            Cosima could feel this, as well, Delphine felt absolutely certain. She pressed into Cosima and relinquished herself to take up all the pleasure Cosima could orchestrate inside of her. Dephine began to give cries that held an element almost of surprise, as she did when she began to build into a climax. As she did, Cosima came up over Delphine and moved her onto her back. She pressed into almost hard and kissed her throat and her breasts. Delphine felt herself poised for a long moment in an almost maddening experience as her body succumbed completely to an experience of pleasure that ran as deep as her being.

            Delphine felt a climax break out in her that took over everything. Her body quaked and pressed into Cosima. The rushes of pleasure as they came through her moved with a force that seemed to carry her beyond her own will, her own capacity to tolerate pleasure and into some altered state of being. She shook and accepted Cosima's touch, until at last her breath came out of her only along with cries of pleasure. She felt Cosima's mouth almost sink against her own once more, as she finally felt herself descend into a final, trembling descent of pleasure.

            Cosima waited for a moment. She let go of Delphine's body. She took her face in her hands and kissed her more. After a long time, Delphine realized that there were tears falling from the corners of her own eyes and reached to push them off with her wrists. She felt a little surprised at this, as it reminded her of how it used to be. This was different, however. She wrapped her arms around Cosima's shoulders and held her in their kissing for a long time.

            When Cosima leaned back a bit, Delphine saw that Cosima's eyes were grown teary, as well. She knew that Cosima saw the surprise held in her expression. Cosima gave a soft laugh. Delphine ran her thumbs under Cosima's eyes, as Cosima closed them for a moment. She sniffed slightly and then sighed in a deep breath.

            "There is something new," Delphine said to her softly.

            "Maybe we're becoming more alike or something," Cosima said.

            Delphine took her face in her hands and brought her close to kiss her. She kissed beside her mouth and on her cheeks, as well. She did one side and then the other, as she held Cosima's face in her hands.

            "Maybe we are just both becoming more," Delphine said to her softly.

            Cosima kissed Delphine again and gave the softest sound in affirmation of this sentiment.


End file.
